He's getting bigger

For quite a while last fall, Alasdair had a real attraction to Little Critter.  It was round about the time when Alasdair, Sheila and I went to Ottawa to visit Denise.  We have a collection of 7 Little Critter stories and sometimes before bed he would sit and listen to the whole collection twice over.  Today I've been thinking about one of the stories in particular - When I Get Bigger.  The story starts out with "When I get bigger I'll be able to do lots of things" and goes on to talk about all of the big boy things that he'll one day be able to do like riding a two-wheeler, having a paper route, helping the little kids on the swings, and picking out his own boots at the shoe store.  I especially love the illustration of Little Critter camped out in his backyard in a tent, with the owl up in the tree and the moon shining behind them.

Most of the activities are things Alasdair can't do by himself yet (picking out the boots excepted).  But it got me to thinking about all of the things he can do now.  Last fall at the playground we would carefully follow him everywhere to make sure he didn't tumble off.  Now we let him climb around on his own.  This evening he very clearly told me that I was to stay on the ground "No mommy, no mommy, no".

He can put some of his boots and shoes on by himself and he can open the front door of the house (uh-oh).  He is also getting to the point where we can explain things to him.   For a while Alasdair was taking Percy to daycare with him everyday.  One day he wanted to bring something different with him, I can't remember what it was, but it had parts that were too small for the younger kids.  I was preparing for a battle to get him to leave it in his locker, but first I explained to him that it would hurt the babies (give them owies).  Surprisingly he repeated "Babies owies" with a very concerned look on his face and put the object in his locker.  This has happened a few times since, including this morning when he walked in with Uncle Greg's green golf ball, said "babies owies" and put it into his locker.

This past Friday was another big boy milestone.  We went to the BDI and Alasdair had his own chocolate ice cream cone.  I worried that he would immediately drop it on the ground and start crying, but my worry was needless.  He held onto that ice cream while we walked across the bridge, down the street a ways, and back across the bridge.  He got quite a few smiles from passers-by as they observed the ice cream all over his face and shirt, and also drew the attention of a small dog who I suppose was interested in getting his share of the ice cream.  Alasdair was interested in the dog as well, but carefully held his cone behind his back as he addressed the dog.


ps.  Thanks for the photos Sheila!